


The Nothing That Is

by kindkit



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Atheism, Atheist Character, Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-13
Updated: 2011-03-13
Packaged: 2017-10-16 22:39:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/170151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kindkit/pseuds/kindkit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Looking into the void.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Nothing That Is

**Author's Note:**

> Written in response to a prompt by Vandonovan, who asked for a positive portrayal of atheism. I thought I had stolen the title from Philip Larkin's [High Windows](http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/philip-larkin/high-windows/), but my memory was playing tricks. It's actually from Wallace Stevens's [The Snow Man](https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/html/1807/4350/poem2016.html), which is not as relevant as Larkin's poem but still lovely.

When Leonard was a boy, God was in the sky and the devil was under his feet. Everything solid and real carried the devil's taint, and holiness was too far away to touch.

He's been escaping his parents' church ever since. First the Atheist Club at Ole Miss, then medical school and Starfleet Academy, where believers were so few that _they_ formed clubs. And finally, space.

There's no divine particle, no God force. Just a big universe and every imaginable and unimaginable kind of people.

Some folks hate the emptiness. Leonard looks out into vacuum and feels, at last, joy.


End file.
